''The Machinist'' is a 2004 film starring Creator/ChristianBale, directed by Brad Anderson (of ''Film/{{Session 9}}'' fame). It's one part KafkaKomedy and two parts surrealist drama, playing on themes from (and, at times, directly quoting from) ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'', ''Film/TaxiDriver'', ''Film/FightClub'', and GermanExpressionism.

Trevor Reznik suffers from a severe case of insomnia: he claims that he hasn't slept in a year. He spends his days ignoring his landlady and compulsively washing his hands with bleach. He enjoys his regular visits to a sweet prostitute girl named Stevie, who absolutely adores him, and he finds a little bit of romance with airport bar waitress and single mom Marie. During the day, Reznik works at a factory where he sleepily operates heavy machinery. When the inevitable happens and someone's arm gets torn off, Reznik ends up in a emotionally destructive downward spiral and quickly starts losing his mind.

The film very deliberately references the stories that it's based on and aims to be a collage of different techniques and atmospheres. To achieve this, it combines {{Chiaroscuro}} visuals with a musical score and camera techniques that evoke the 1950s, creating a kind of AnachronismStew of editing methods. Bale's performance is an absolute ''tour de force'', and the end result is a haunting, gorgeous film that tells its story in a clever-yet-familiar way.

To play Reznik, Christian Bale famously [[DyeingForYourArt lost 63 lbs]] to look like an emaciated shell of a man. He described the experience of near-starvation as strangely peaceful. After that harrowing experience, Bale bulked up to truly superheroic dimensions to play [[Film/TheDarkKnightSaga Batman]] (before losing weight ''again'' to appear in ''Film/TheFighter'').

----!!This film provides examples of:

* AmusementParkOfDoom: When Reznik takes Marie's son Nicholas into the Route 666 "funhouse", which is mostly a terrifying display of criminals being executed for their crimes. Eventually, Nicholas suffers an epileptic fit and Reznik has to abandon the ride to drag him out of there.* AnArmAndALeg: Miller, continuing the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxFejgU0GkY odd tradition]] of MichaelIronside losing limbs.* ArcNumber: 1:30. And at 1:30, a major plot twist is revealed.* ArcWords: Arc conversation; "You okay?" "Don't I look okay?" "If you were any thinner you wouldn't exist."* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Trevor will be spending the foreseeable future in prison, but he's finally come to terms with what he did, and began on the long road to psychological recovery]].* BlackComedy: ** Stevie says the bruises she got from her abusive clients were "occupational hazards."** The film opens with Reznik attempting -- and [[EpicFail utterly failing]] -- to dispose of a corpse in a river.* BloodyHorror: Reznik is an anorexic insomniac who works heavy machinery. While, working at the factory, he accidentally makes a machine rip somebody's arm off. And ''then'', he hallucinates about a man who has an equally mutilated hand, with his thumb replaced by a toe. Not to mention he has a refrigerator overflowing with blood, [[spoiler: but it's only rotten fish]].* BodyHorror: Reznik's thinness, Ivan's disfigured hand, Miller's gruesome accident...* CaliforniaDoubling: Bizarrely [[InvertedTrope inverted]]. The film is set in California, and it was shot entirely near Barcelona.* CarpetRolledCorpse: Reznik kills the monstrous Ivan after he finds that he killed a little boy in his bathtub. He wraps Ivan's body in his carpet and drives it out to sea to dump it. [[spoiler: When the carpet rolls open by accident Reznik finds that the body is missing, the answer only being revealed later on.]]* CatScare: A curious subversion. The blood dripping out of Reznik's freezer gets built up for about the last half an hour of the movie. When Reznik ''finally'' opens it - [[spoiler: it's full of dead fish]]. This, however, leads to an even more shocking [[TheReveal reveal]] than the audience was expecting.* CentralTheme: The truth will set you free, no matter how [[AwfulTruth awful.]]* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:Car cigarette lighters almost cause Reznik to crash late on in the movie, and resulted in a hit and run prior to the plot's events.]]* CheshireCatGrin: Ivan does a particularly disturbing rendition of this trope.* CosmeticHorror: Christian Bale as the emaciated, gaunt Trevor Reznik.* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler:Reznik never actually talked to anyone in the airport cafe. Makes you wonder which ones of the events were real.]]* EnemyWithout: [[spoiler:Ivan is Reznik's representation of his evil side, the monstrous man he images himself to be after accidentally running over a small boy.]]* EpiphanyTherapy: The end, where [[spoiler: Reznik finally accepts having killed a boy in a car accident, turns himself in to the police]] and at the very end is seen sleeping peacefully for the first time in a year.* FailsafeFailure: A textbook example: a worker is repairing a broken machine when someone accidentally leans on the On button (which is only possible because the workshop has NoOSHACompliance ''whatsoever''). Hammering on the Off button does absolutely nothing, the repair worker is dragged into the machine and loses his arm. It's not clear what was wrong with the machine to start with, but it might have been a good idea for someone to ''disconnect the power'' before sticking his arm in there. It was made clear that the machine was ''supposed'' to be locked out, but the manager had previously reprimanded employees for taking too much time to get equipment fixed. That kind of pressure is definitely illegal, but happens more often than you'd like to think (especially in small shops with narrow profit margins). [[spoiler:The reveal that the main character is insane and frequently hallucinating might explain it, however.]]* FanDisservice: Reznik's body, which has suffered from years of borderline starvation.* {{Foreshadowing}}:** Reznik's second conversation with Maria, particularly [[spoiler:"A little guilt goes a long way."]]** Maria's son has an epileptic attack while on an amusement park ride. Reznik runs out, carrying his limp body and screaming for help, but only Maria comes. [[spoiler:Reznik is hallucinating both of them.]]** Reznik is repeatedly shown to be a bad driver, often getting distracted, [[spoiler:and once killed a boy in a hit-and-run because of this]].* GenderBlenderName: Stevie.* GroinAttack: Miller gets tired of Reznik's accusations rather quickly. Reznik limping across the street while clutching his testicles is one of the more [[BlackComedy amusing]] scenes in the film.* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Stevie.* ImaginaryFriend: The [[spoiler:giggly, bald Cajun guy]] turns out to be [[spoiler:a figment of the protagonist's guilty conscience]]. And the [[spoiler: airport waitress/single mother the protagonist chats with]] turns out to be [[spoiler:a manifestation of the mother whose son he recklessly killed with his car and fled the scene. The son of the "waitress" is a manifestation of the boy the protagonist killed.]]* TheInsomniac: Reznik.* KafkaKomedy: And Kafka Drama.* MeaningfulEcho:** [[spoiler:"I'd like to report a hit and run" when Trevor finally regains his memories and comes to terms with his crime.]]** Trevor has the exact same conversation with Stevie (a call-girl) and with Maria late on. This is a clue that [[spoiler:Maria doesn't exist and his only in his imagination]].-->'''Stevie/Maria:''' Are you okay?\\'''Trevor:''' Don't I look okay?\\'''Stevie/Maria:''' If you were any thinner you wouldn't exist.* MeaningfulName: The main character's name is Trevor Reznik, which subtly invokes both [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]] (who records dark and creepy music) and Darryl Revok (a character in [[Film/{{Scanners}} a different dark and creepy movie]]). In fact, the actor who played Revok, Michael Ironside, is in ''The Machinist''. He plays another machinist. "Reznik" also means "butcher" in several slavic languages. * MentalStory: [[spoiler: About half of the movie is revealed to be this.]]* {{Motif}}: The left-hand and right-hand paths. Might be symbolically relevant considering [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Hand_Path this]].* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Reznik, being increasingly unstable, being a {{Jerkass}} to Stevie and Miller. The latter was a particularly cringe-inducing example, the man lost his ''arm'' because of Reznik's sleepiness and tried real hard to let it pass and not bear a grudge. He welcomed Reznik to his property and, when Reznik verbally assaulted him due to his paranoia, he's looking like he's in a real struggle to keep his composure. He eventually punched him in the groin and told him to leave, a reasonably mild response.* NoOSHACompliance: A literal example, when the shop manager chews a co-worker out for taking time to lock out a machine for maintenance, Reznik quotes the regulations to him, the manager tells him to "write your Congressman." Later,[[spoiler: the same co-worker is fixing a machine when Reznik accidentally turns it on and it rips his arm off.]] TruthInTelevision all too often, especially for small shops with tight profit margins looking for ways to cut corners.* NoteToSelf: The sticky notes, including the [[spoiler:hangman game, which he should have written himself]].* NothingButSkinAndBones: Reznik has become a walking corpse over the years [[spoiler:due to repressed guilt slowly driving him insane.]]* OedipusComplex: Very subtle example, but it's hinted that Trevor had a somewhat complicated relationship with his mother.* OutDamnedSpot: [[spoiler: It's implied that Reznik's compulsive hand washing WITH BLEACH (and later, lye) is due to repressed guilt.]]* PetTheDog: Trevor appears to have a soft spot for kids. [[spoiler:Which only serves to make TheReveal [[DownerEnding even more painful.]]]]* PlatonicProstitution: Stevie. Early on in the film he pays her, but later on it becomes this trope.* PrimalScene: The public lavatory scene.* RecycledInSpace: ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' [-IN LOS ANGELES!-]* RedHerring: Loads of them.* {{Retraux}}: Roque Baņos's score is noticeably anachronistic, owing a lot to, in particular, Bernard Herrmann.* TheReveal: Happens gradually throughout the film, instead of all at once: [[spoiler: Reznik once killed a young boy, drove on instead of stopping to help and is now going insane with repressed guilt. Marie and her son Nicholas are his mind's representations of the family he destroyed this way. Ivan is his view of himself.]]* RuleOfThree: Trevor fills in the game of Hangman twice before finding the right answer. Additionally, on three occasions Trevor is faced with a choice between turning left and turning right: the first two times he turns left, the last time right.* SanitySlippage: Although Trevor Reznik had been acting odd ever since [[spoiler:he kills the boy]], when he starts harassing and assaulting everyone around him in a paranoid conviction that they are all out to get him you can tell he has finally completely cracked.* ScaryBlackMan: Jones.* SeinfeldianConversation: The locker room banter. Used to establish Reznik's increasing detachment from society.* {{Sampling}}: Reznik's line in the bathtub ("You know so little about me... What if I turn to a werewolf or something?") was used in the [[ManicStreetPreachers Manic Street Preacher]] song "Peeled Apples."* ShoutOut: To Creator/ChuckPalahniuk and Creator/FyodorDostoevsky. ... It's that kind of film.** "No one's ever died from insomnia" is a direct quote from ''Film/FightClub''.*** Also, Reznik using lye on his hands.** The closeup of a coffee cup at Marie's bar is an obvious ShoutOut to ''Film/TaxiDriver'', which has ''many'' things in common with ''The Machinist''. ([[spoiler: Criminally]] insane insomniac falls for a woman, messes up, then tries to rescue a pretty young prostitute from her job.)** And "Trevor Reznik" intentionally sounds like "[[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]]".** Reznik is reading Kafka's ''The Castle'' in one scene and Dostoevsky's ''The Idiot'' in another.* SpecialThanks: To Bale's wife Sandra "Sibi" Blazic presumably for not trying to have her husband committed and just generally standing by her man while he disappeared before her eyes* ThemeNaming: In a way. Some characters' names are shoehorned to fit the hangman's game.* ThisBedOfRoses: Trevor Reznik is cared for Stevie, the hooker whom he frequently visits, after his paranoia becomes too much. Unfortunately, he eventually believes that she's out to get him as well and drives her away.* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Not a full example, as the ending rationalizes much of the film.* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler: Reznik is "Killer"]].* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The solution for the hangman's game, while not exactly hard to guess, was casually shown in the trailer.* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Trevor Reznik is psychologically and psysically decaying from a past incident which he has mentally suppressed. [[spoiler:He accidentally ran over a small boy with his car, but fled the scene to escape the consequences. He has since become an emaciated husk and suffered a psychotic break due to the guilt driving him mad.]]%%* UnreliableNarrator* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: InUniverse, the amusement park ride, which depicts mutilated corpses and silhouetted sexual acts. Subverted as [[spoiler: it's all a hallucination]].